ART-257 The Revolution of Print

GER: VP (Human Cultures - Visual and Performing Arts)
Could the Protestant Reformation have happened without the invention of the printing press? How did knowledge, ideas, and news of events spread across cultural and geographic borders before the digital age? What gave rise to a non-elite collecting public in the art world? Prints have historically been understood as enabling the democratization of art, and this course will investigate how such objects revolutionized the exchange of information, technology, and artistic ideas across the globe from the fifteenth century to the present. Students will examine how printed material stimulated and responded to various social, cultural, and intellectual movements. 4 credits.